José Miguel Gaona Cartolano (born 1957 in

Brussels Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...

, Belgium) is a Spanish physician,

psychiatrist A psychiatrist is a physician who specializes in psychiatry. Psychiatrists are physicians who evaluate patients to determine whether their symptoms are the result of a physical illness, a combination of physical and mental ailments or strictly ...

and writer, specialized in

forensic psychiatry Forensic psychiatry is a subspecialty of psychiatry and is related to criminology. It encompasses the interface between law and psychiatry. According to the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, it is defined as "a subspecialty of psychiatr ...

neurology Neurology (from , "string, nerve" and the suffix wikt:-logia, -logia, "study of") is the branch of specialty (medicine) , medicine dealing with the diagnosis and treatment of all categories of conditions and disease involving the nervous syst ...

and

developmental psychology Developmental psychology is the scientific study of how and why humans grow, change, and adapt across the course of their lives. Originally concerned with infants and children, the field has expanded to include adolescence, adult development ...

. He is one of the most recognized mind specialists in Spain, with a long career in TV and radio, as well as a member of the

European Psychiatric Association The European Psychiatric Association (EPA) is the main association representing psychiatry in Europe. History The EPA was founded in October 1983 as the Association of European Psychiatrists (AEP), at the University of Strasbourg, by twelve Frenc ...

and the

New York Academy of Sciences The New York Academy of Sciences (NYAS), originally founded as the Lyceum of Natural History in January 1817, is a nonprofit professional society based in New York City, with more than 20,000 members from 100 countries. It is the fourth-oldes ...

. He founded the magazine ''Educar bien'' in 2006 and the

podcast A podcast is a Radio program, program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. Typically, a podcast is an Episode, episodic series of digital audio Computer file, files that users can download to a personal device or str ...

''La Reunión Secreta'' in 2020.

Career

Gaona was born in Brussels to Spanish parents, who abandoned Spain during the Francoist era with the help of the Maquis due to his grandfather's role as a captain of the

Second Spanish Republic The Spanish Republic (), commonly known as the Second Spanish Republic (), was the form of democratic government in Spain from 1931 to 1939. The Republic was proclaimed on 14 April 1931 after the deposition of Alfonso XIII, King Alfonso XIII. ...

. They lived many years in Chile, where his family got involved with poet

Pablo Neruda Pablo Neruda ( ; ; born Ricardo Eliécer Neftalí Reyes Basoalto; 12 July 190423 September 1973) was a Chilean poet-diplomat and politician who won the 1971 Nobel Prize in Literature. Neruda became known as a poet when he was 13 years old an ...

, journalist Augusto Olivares and successive heads of state

Salvador Allende Salvador Guillermo Allende Gossens (26 June 1908 – 11 September 1973) was a Chilean socialist politician who served as the 28th president of Chile from 1970 until Death of Salvador Allende, his death in 1973 Chilean coup d'état, 1973. As a ...

and

Augusto Pinochet Augusto José Ramón Pinochet Ugarte (25 November 1915 – 10 December 2006) was a Chilean military officer and politician who was the dictator of Military dictatorship of Chile, Chile from 1973 to 1990. From 1973 to 1981, he was the leader ...

. Gaona owned an official passport of

statelessness In international law, a stateless person is someone who is "not considered as a national by any state under the operation of its law". Some stateless people are also refugees. However, not all refugees are stateless, and many people who are s ...

until 12 years old, when his family could return to Spain. After returning to Spain, Gaona obtained a

medical degree A medical degree is a professional degree admitted to those who have passed coursework in the fields of medicine and/or surgery from an accredited medical school. Obtaining a degree in medicine allows for the recipient to continue on into special ...

with

Latin honors Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some Sout ...

in the University of Córdoba, undergoing his thesis under famous neurologist and psychiatrist Carlos Castilla del Pino. Afterwards he added a

doctorate in medicine A Doctor of Medicine (abbreviated MD, from the Latin language, Latin ) is a medical degree, the meaning of which varies between different jurisdictions. In the United States, and some other countries, the ''MD'' denotes a professional degree of ph ...

and a master's degree in

medical psychology Medical psychology or Medicopsychology is the application of psychological principles to the practice of medicine, sometimes using drugs for both physical and mental disorders. A medical psychologist must obtain specific qualification in psych ...

in the

Complutense University of Madrid The Complutense University of Madrid (, UCM; ) is a public research university located in Madrid. Founded in Alcalá in 1293 (before relocating to Madrid in 1836), it is one of the oldest operating universities in the world, and one of Spain's ...

, and later studied theology in the

University of Navarra The University of Navarra is a private Catholic research university located on the southeast border of Pamplona, Navarre, Spain. It was founded in 1952 by Saint Josemaría Escrivá de Balaguer, the founder of '' Opus Dei'', as a corporat ...

, attracted by the field of

neurotheology The neuroscience of religion, also known as "neurotheology" or "spiritual neuroscience," seeks to explain the biological and neurological processes behind religious experience. Researchers in this field study correlations of the ''biological neu ...

. During his medical tenure he worked as a heart surgeon in the

University of Göttingen The University of Göttingen, officially the Georg August University of Göttingen (, commonly referred to as Georgia Augusta), is a Public university, public research university in the city of Göttingen, Lower Saxony, Germany. Founded in 1734 ...

in Germany, as a mind health specialist for

Médecins du Monde ''Médecins du monde'' (MdM; ), or Doctors of the World, is an international humanitarian organization which seeks to provide emergency and long-term medical care to the world's most vulnerable people. It also advocates for an end to health ine ...

during the

Bosnian War The Bosnian War ( / Рат у Босни и Херцеговини) was an international armed conflict that took place in Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bosnia and Herzegovina between 1992 and 1995. Following several earlier violent incid ...

and the

Rwandan genocide The Rwandan genocide, also known as the genocide against the Tutsi, occurred from 7 April to 19 July 1994 during the Rwandan Civil War. Over a span of around 100 days, members of the Tutsi ethnic group, as well as some moderate Hutu and Gre ...

, and as a teacher in several universities in Spain and United States. Gaona introduced the first AIDS tests in Spain in 1985 with the help of

Nobel Prize The Nobel Prizes ( ; ; ) are awards administered by the Nobel Foundation and granted in accordance with the principle of "for the greatest benefit to humankind". The prizes were first awarded in 1901, marking the fifth anniversary of Alfred N ...

Luc Montagnier Luc Montagnier ( , ; 18 August 1932 – 8 February 2022) was a French virologist and joint recipient, with and , of the 2008 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his discovery of the human immunodeficiency virus ( HIV). He worked as a rese ...

, also opening the first treatment center in the country, which was later closed down by the

National Police Corps The National Police Corps (, CNP; ; also known simply as the National Police, ) is the national civilian police, police force of Spain. The CNP is mainly responsible for policing urban areas, whilst rural policing is generally the responsibil ...

due to the

social stigma Stigma, originally referring to the visible marking of people considered inferior, has evolved to mean a negative perception or sense of disapproval that a society places on a group or individual based on certain characteristics such as their ...

regarding the illness. He started his work in media during the 2000s, becoming a usual collaborator to

Iker Jiménez Iker Jiménez Elizari (born 10 January 1973) is a Spanish journalist and television host. He is a graduate in sciences of information from the Complutense University of Madrid and the European University of Madrid, and gained prominence directing ...

, as in his programs ''Milenio 3'' in

Cadena SER La Cadena SER (the SER Network) is a Spanish radio network established in 1924, with a regular listenership of 4,139,000 reported in 2018. The acronym SER stands for Sociedad Española de Radiodifusión (Spanish Broadcasting Company). Cadena SE ...

and ''

Cuarto Milenio ''Cuarto milenio'' is a Spanish television program directed and presented by journalist Iker Jiménez and Carmen Porter. The program has been broadcast weekly on television channel Cuatro since November 2005, being the channel's longest running ...

'' in

Cuatro Cuatro, Spanish (and other Romance languages) for the 4, number 4, may refer to: * Cuatro (instrument), a family of Latin American string instruments, including: ** Cuatro (Venezuela) ** Puerto Rican cuatro * Cuatro (TV channel), a Spanish free-to ...

, and to

Ana Rosa Quintana Ana Rosa Quintana Hortal (born 12 January 1956) is a Spanish journalist and television presenter. Having originally started out in radio, she rose to fame on Antena 3's daytime chat show ''Sabor a ti''. She later jumped ship to Telecinco to h ...

. In 2006, following the publishing of his book ''Ser adolescente no es fácil'', he founded the magazine ''Educar bien'' in partnership with child and youth specialists like Amando de Miguel, Javier Urra and Pedro Núñez Morgades. He performed especially relevant research in fields traditionally associated to

parapsychology Parapsychology is the study of alleged psychic phenomena (extrasensory perception, telepathy, teleportation, precognition, clairvoyance, psychokinesis (also called telekinesis), and psychometry (paranormal), psychometry) and other paranormal cla ...

, most notably

near-death experience A near-death experience (NDE) is a profound personal experience associated with death or impending death, which researchers describe as having similar characteristics. When positive, which the great majority are, such experiences may encompa ...

s, which composed the topic of his 2012 book ''Al otro lado del túnel'', prologued by the renowned

Raymond Moody Raymond A. Moody Jr. (born June 30, 1944) is an American philosopher, psychiatrist, physician and author, most widely known for his books about afterlife and near-death experiences (NDE), a term that he coined in 1975 in his best-selling book '' ...

, and the psychiatric facet of

demonic possession Spirit Possession is an altered state of consciousness and associated behaviors which are purportedly caused by the control of a human body and its functions by Supernatural#Spirit, spirits, ghosts, demons, angels, or Deity, gods. The concept ...

, for which he joined official courses by the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

in Vatican City. His work in the NDE led him to work with cognitive psychologist

Michael Persinger Michael A. Persinger (June 26, 1945 – August 14, 2018) was an American-Canadian professor of psychology at Laurentian University, a position he had held from 1971 until his death in 2018. His best-known hypotheses include the temporal lobes of ...

, popularizer of the

God helmet The God helmet is an experimental apparatus (originally called the Coren helmet) developed by neuropsychological researcher Stanley Coren and neuroscientist Michael Persinger to study creativity, religious experience and the effects of subtle stim ...

, and

Bruce Greyson Charles Bruce Greyson (born October 1946) is an American psychiatrist and near-death experience researcher. During his research of near-death experiences, known as near-death studies, he has documented many accounts of near-death experiences, an ...

. Due to his experience, he participated in the judicial processes of several famous criminal cases in Spain, among them the José Bretón case and that of

Patrick Nogueira François Patrick Nogueira Gouveia (born 6 November 1996) is a Brazilian murderer serving three life sentences plus 25 years in Spain for the murders of his aunt, uncle, and two infant cousins in Pioz, Castilla–La Mancha on 17 August 2016. N ...

. He also was part of the mind health team of the disaster workers during the

2021 Cumbre Vieja volcanic eruption An eruption at the Cumbre Vieja complex volcano, volcanic ridge, comprising the southern half of the Spain, Spanish island of La Palma in the Canary Islands, took place between 19 September and 13 December 2021. It was the first volcanic eruption ...

. In February 2020, Gaona was part of the guests experts of the famous ''Cuarto Milenio'' episodes that predicted the impact of the

COVID-19 pandemic in Spain The COVID-19 pandemic in Spain has resulted in confirmed cases of COVID-19 and deaths. The virus was first confirmed to have spread to Spain on 31 January 2020, when a German tourist tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 in La Gomera, Canary Island ...

. The same month, due to the program's hiatus as a consequence of the pandemic, Gaona opened his own

, ''La Reunión Secreta''. During the rest of the year, Gaona would harsh criticism to the Spanish government's management of the crisis, in especially the chairman of the

Coordination Centre for Health Alerts and Emergencies The Coordination Centre for Health Alerts and Emergencies (, CCAES) is a body of the Spain, Spanish Ministry of Health (Spain), Ministry of Health responsible for coordinating the management of information and supporting all health authorities ...

Fernando Simón Fernando Simón Soria (born 29 July 1963) is a Spanish epidemiologist serving as Director of the Coordination Centre for Health Alerts and Emergencies of the Ministry of Health. He came to public prominence as spokesman for the special committ ...

, whose actions Gaona called "despicable". In 2022, he published his first novel, ''Furor Domini''.

Awards

* Young Researcher Award of the Community of Madrid * Silver Cross of the Orden de los Caballeros Custodios de Calatrava la Vieja (2021)

Activity

TV

* ''Día a día'' (2004) –

Telecinco Telecinco is a Spanish free-to-air television channel operated by Mediaset España. The channel was previously known as Tele 5, because it had first begun its experimental transmissions on 10 March 1989, and a year later, it was officially laun ...

* ''Desde Dentro'' (2004) –

Telemadrid Telemadrid is a public television station in the Community of Madrid, Spain, the flagship channel of the regional public broadcaster Radio Televisión Madrid (RTVM). It began its broadcast on 2 May 1989. History First years Telemadrid was cr ...

* ''

'' (2005–present) –

* ''El programa de Ana Rosa'' (2005–present) – Telecinco * ''Enfoque'' (2005) – La 2 * ''360 grados'' (2007) –

EITB Euskal Irrati Telebista (; ; acronym EITB, branded eitb) is the Basque Autonomous Community's public broadcast service, which broadcasts throughout the Basque Country. Its main brand is Euskal Telebista (ETB, Basque Television). EITB is the l ...

* '' Para todos La 2'' (2012) – La 2 * ''El gran debate'' (2009–2011) – Telecinco * ''Espacio en blanco'' (2010–2012) – La 2 * ''Abre los ojos y mira'' (2013) – Telecinco * ''Al otro lado'' (2013) – Telecinco * ''La observadora'' (2015) – La 2 * ''

Caso Cerrado ''Caso cerrado'' (''Case Closed''), formerly ''Sala de parejas'' (''Couples' Court''), is a Spanish language court show that aired on Telemundo from 2001-2019 in which Cuban-American lawyer Ana María Polo arbitrates cases for volunteer parti ...

'' (2019) –

Telemundo Telemundo (; formerly NetSpan) is an American Spanish-language terrestrial television network owned by NBCUniversal Telemundo Enterprises, a division of NBCUniversal, which in turn is a wholly owned subsidiary of Comcast. It provides content ...

* '' Horizonte'' (2020-presente) – Cuatro

Radio

* ''Milenio 3'' – (2005) –

* ''Herrera en la Onda'' (2012–2015) –

Onda Cero Onda Cero is a Spanish national generalist radio station, a part of Atresmedia media group. It is Spain's third-largest radio station by number of listeners as of 2024. Among its programs are ''Más de Uno,'' ''Julia en la Onda,'' ''La Brújula ...

* ''La rosa de los vientos'' (2012) – Onda Cero * ''Fin de Semana'' (2020–present) –

COPE A cope ( ("rain coat") or ("cape")) is a liturgical long mantle or cloak, open at the front and fastened at the breast with a band or clasp. It may be of any liturgical colour. A cope may be worn by any rank of the Catholic or Anglican clerg ...

Internet

* ''La Reunión Secreta'' (2020–present) – Ivoox and YouTube * ''La Estirpe de los Libres'' (2020–present)

Bibliography

* ''El síndrome de Eva'' (La Esfera de los Libros, 2001) * ''Ser adolescente no es fácil'' (La Esfera de los Libros, 2006) * ''Endorfinas: las hormonas de la felicidad'' (La Esfera de los Libros, 2007) * ''Al otro lado del túnel: '' (La Esfera de los Libros, 2012) * ''El límite'' (La Esfera de los Libres, 2015) * ''Furor Domini'' (La Esfera de los Libros, 2021)

Sources

External links

José Miguel Gaona
in

ResearchGate ResearchGate is a European commercial social networking site for scientists and researchers to share papers, ask and answer questions, and find collaborators. According to a 2014 study by ''Nature'' and a 2016 article in ''Times Higher Education' ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gaona, José Miguel Living people 1957 births Spanish physicians Spanish psychiatrists University of Córdoba (Spain) alumni Complutense University of Madrid alumni People from Brussels